I collected a female Great Purple Hairstreak on February 27, 2010. I put her in
a screened cage with mistletoe (Phoradendron tomentosum), and by the next
afternoon she had laid two eggs. I wanted a few more eggs, but it was very windy
and cool (60-70ºF). I put her under a lamp
in a jar with food and mistletoe. Two hours later she had deposited another
dozen eggs.

The first two eggs eclosed on 3/9; the rest on the 10th. The caterpillars
blended well with the mistletoe leaves, but the airy structure of the plant made
the caterpillars relatively easy to find and care for.

The caterpillars took what seemed a long time to pupate: the chrysalis was
formed fully 2 days after the larva entered the prepupal stage. Interestingly,
several caterpillars in the same container grouped together for pupation.
(Unfortunately for the quality of the picture, they did this on the paper towel
used to catch frass....)

Communal pupation

Since the hairstreak's chrysalis is dark brown, one would expect that in nature the
caterpillar moves from parasitic mistletoe to that plant's host tree before
pupating. The dark color of the chrysalis also prevented me from determining
when the adult was ready to emerge.

Egg-to-adult took approximately 6 weeks for this group of caterpillars.